Author Notes:
No image for the day, as I am now in the process of moving out from my current home. I am taking my Mom away from this little mess of a place that has been our home for like 7 years. We're moving to a cozy place in the uptown area with:
- 1 balcony, 1 bathroom, 1 bedroom, 1 general living area
- Rent is 230 USD a month (Doubling the price of our now previous place)
- 0.13 USD for one kilowatt of electricity.
- 3.82 USD per head for water supply.
- The owner will help us move the house and install our furniture.
- It's a clean and safe neighborhood, perfect for Mom to recuperate from years of ailments and trying to fight against the pervert that kept messing with us for the last four years.
It will be tough, but I won't give up this chance, not ever. So, just like what I said over on the RM side of things. I beseech you, my readers, to support my little two-person family in anyway you can. Share the stories. Write your comments and reviews. Give me little favorite hearts. Do join up on Patreon when you're fully capable of doing so. The current 25% discount will be running from now to the 22nd of March.
Due to the updated rent and the fact that I will need to handle the moving fees, I have to raise the Monthly Income Goal.
Actual Monthly Income Goal 770/1500 USD (Of this amount, exactly 230 USD will be used to pay rent alone, leaving us with not much to cover the additional fees.)
Income Counting Yearly Supporters 960 USD (It will be a long road, but I won't give up. For my Mom. For all of my loyal readers.)
https://www.patre-on.com/Heartbreak117
Thank you, everyone, for giving us a chance. And please, enjoy.
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As I mentally applaud the System for being so considerate of my busy circumstance, giving me a reward ticket and all, I close and unclose my left hand repeatedly. It's the very same hand that cast Warhammer-verse's first Taixuan Eminence, and the feedback from that single act has been... Mystifying.
Back on Taixuan Mountain, whenever I used Eminence, there's always a distinct physical return of my blade, formless or not, cutting something, erasing something. It doesn't matter if it's an Honkai beast, a zombie, or just a hapless cliff face; there's always something that is transmitted back to me. Yet, back then, my Eminence had cut something that is similarly formless, a corrupted machine spirit, a nascent digital daemon. And the period before I cast my blade, the moment I saw its presence among the strings of 0 and 1, the instant my blade traversed the gap between the Materium and Immaterium, the split second that Eminence cut and denied the corrupted of its existence... Each juncture has been one revealing, one learning experience after another. The more I replay the chain of events, the more I feel my understanding of Edge of Taixuan expands, learning once more that the sky is never its limit.
Heh... See the Invisible, Do the Impossible indeed.
It's truly a martial art of the divines, where the practitioner's talent, effort, comprehension, and imagination are the sole boundaries. And I know just who to thank for teaching me everything I ever need to reach this point.
[Jingwei: Kehum! Ein, let's not forget how hard you practiced to get to this point. You and Xuanyuan are the ones who truly develop the Edge of Taixuan beyond the confines of what I taught. If someone here is to say thank you, then it should have been me. You have opened my eyes to see a whole new method of utilization of Eminence, a different way to see the realm we inhabit.]
Perhaps it's to be expected that Hua remains humble as always. Speaking of Hua.
[Ein: Sister Hua, catch~!]
[Jingwei: Huh?]
Well, that's a cute reaction from my Master.
[Jingwei: Huh!?]
I can barely hold a chuckle from escaping my mouth.
[Do you want to gift 1x Random Reward Ticket to Jingwei?
Yes/No.]
[1x Randow Reward Ticket is gifted to recipient Jingwei.]
[Jingwei: Ein, you-!]
[Ein: Now, hold your horse, Sister Hua. Don't you dare refuse that ticket. Let me fulfill my end of the bargain, alright?]
[Jingwei: ...]
[Ein: Come on, Sister Fuxi, Sister Nuwa, Senior Sister Xuanyuan, help me out here.]
[Fuxi: Don't worry, Ein, leave this blockhead to us.]
[Xuanyuan: Right! Right! Let us convince Jingwei that this is really a gift from you, Ein. And a gift shouldn't be returned ~!]
[Nuwa: Speaking of that, do you really think we can use that ticket, Ein? After all, your System is not truly bound to us, right?]
[Ein: Trust in the System, Sister Nuwa. We have already confirmed with it many times that you can partake in the benefits the System offers through me. Given that I was able to send the ticket over to your side successfully, you can certainly use it. At the very least, it doesn't hurt for you to try to tear it. If it doesn't work, then you can send it back to me. Worse comes to worst, it's only one random reward being lost.]
[Nuwa: Alrighty then. Thanks a lot, Ein~! We only need to tear it in half, right?]
[Ein: Yup~! And you can either do it mentally or physically, which is neat.]
[Nuwa: Ok~! Gonna decide between us who among us has the best luck then. Take care of yourself, Ein, and see ya in a bit!]
[Ein: Have fun, you all~!]
The moment I tune out of the Chatroom, I am greeted with the sight of Weiss taking a good look at my left hand.
"You should think better than making a full-power chop on the steel casing of that cogitator, Ein." She admonishes me with a stern look before taking hold of my left hand. "Come on, let me see it."
"If it's stupid but it works, then it ain't stupid." I chuckle, using my right hand to remove the glove on my left, revealing my fair skin for her to inspect. "See, I didn't hurt myself, Rookie."
"For this time, at least..." Weiss relents, gently dropping my hand with a sigh. "Seriously, a handchop that somehow knocks out the corrupted machine spirit for the purification prayers to be able to purge it swiftly? Just how many more tricks do you still have up in your sleeves?"
Since I can't exactly say anything about Eminence, I have let the others reach their own conclusion about what happened to the cogitator arrays. The result of which isn't much further off from whatever lie I could concoct should the situation require it. I shrug with a smirk directed at Weiss.
"Well, I strive to impress."
"...I think you've said that line before. Don't tell me it will be a regular one-liner from now on?" Weiss fixes me with a dry look, to which I giggle before putting my glove back on.
At this moment, Johnson, Tsavorae, and Tu'rok approach us with new orders. Our Cadian Sergeant laughs.
"Ein, I don't know one shit about what the heck you pulled off earlier, but damn if it didn't make our job a whole lot easier from here on out."
Sister Tsavorae gives me a delighted nod. "We've identified where our objectives are. Two of the three will be handled by the main force, leaving one for us to tackle."
"We will have to be swift. Although the Magos can seal some security gates from here, the enemy can still reinforce the main cogitator chamber from angles not logged in the observation room." Tu'rok adds. "Once again, time is of the essence."
"Unfortunately, though," Tsavorae slums her shoulder, turning to look in the direction of Magos Hedagine. "The Sisters won't be joining this assault. My Squad and I will be needed to guard the Magos and this observation room. They've become the eyes and ears of both us and the main force inside this accursed building. Their importance does not need to be explicitly stated."
I nod, understanding where Tsavorae is coming from. "Don't worry, Sister Tsavorae. There will be more chances for you to send the heathens back where they came from. You're doing the Emperor's work by guarding this post for us all."
"Heh, go kick some traitorous asses for me, alright?" Tsavorae holds off her armored fist in my direction.
I smile before giving her a fist bump. Johnson, standing by the side, looks repeatedly at us and the others who will be rejoining the fight soon.
"Heh, well, what do you know? We're green, and very, very mean!" The Sergeant laughs before racking the charging handle of his Kantrael Lasrifle.
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A loaded march is a relatively fast march over a distance while carrying a load. It's something that all Cadians, civilians included, have done multiple times over the course of our lives. It's a great way to train our stamina and mental resilience, something that pays dividends when you realize just how long we have been fighting nonstop ever since landing on Installation 08. After that brief moment of rest and chow in that dinky little place, it's been one battle after another. Were we any other Regiment, we would have collapsed long ago.
We are not Astartes, hell, we don't even have the Sorotias' power armor. We're just good old flesh and blood running and gunning. Granted, I can't consider myself a normal human now with all the Honkai energy in my veins. But you catch my drift, right? It's a damn respectable deed, the rest of 3rd Platoon, all grit and discipline, manage to stay hot on the Salamanders' heels, even if the Astartes are only walking at a brisk pace. My fellow Cadians' combat stamina is no slouch.
Guided by Magos Hedagine, who is staying in the observation room, we Cadians and Salamanders rarely stop for anything. Even when one of the Astartes has to kick down a door and flush out the occupants with a fistful of bolt rounds, the rest of us keep on marching. The speed of our advance, coupled with a severe reduction in hostile presences, means the straggler cultists we encounter aren't able to establish an effective blockade to halt our steps. They don't even know when and how to start to counter a mixed force of Astartes and Guards with their measly handheld firepower.
Of course, desperate times call for desperate measures; no less than three cultists have tried using others as decoys and rushed us down with Krak Grenades in a suicidal manner. However, with the Magos looking over our shoulders and my instinct at play, none could get close enough for them to be a threat; 3rd Platoon's las bolts are quite an effective deterrent.
Of course, the apparent ease of our march is not without a cost. For expediency and safety, Tu'rok volunteers himself and his compatriots to form a wall of superhuman steel to block any incoming fire meant for us. Bullets and las bolts that could have easily cut down instead bounce harmlessly off the masterfully crafted power armor and Firedrake capes of the Salamander Veterans. Moving in between the gaps, green armor plates, 3rd Platoon can safely retaliate against the pesky heretics that aren't in the Astartes' melee range.
Overall, it's a straight shot to the objective. Until...
"There's an ambush ahead." The Magos warns us through Vox. "Four signatures are detected hiding in the maintenance shaft that runs parallel to the corridor you're using."
I turn to the side of the wall where, instead of a full rockcrete construction, there's a grated fence that runs from the ground up to half of the wall's height. Not much guesswork is needed to know that the ambush is hiding behind the grated fence that separates the maintenance shaft from this corridor.
"Doesn't seem like someone of our size can flush them out." Tu'rok says with a note of amusement in his tone, noting how the shaft can barely accommodate the height of an average Guardsman.
"Then we'll split off here. Someone has to take the maintenance shaft to flank the cogitator chamber anyway." I reply before giving Weiss and Scorpin a nod. "Johnson, Tu'rok, we'll see you on the other side. Oh, and Sarge."
I reach into my backpack and pull out yet another Dynamite before tossing it to Johnson, who snatches it out of the air with ease. "Just in case you'll need one."
"Aight, I can work with this." Johnson replies with a smirk before shoving the Melta bomb into a secured storage sack on his gear.
"Happy hunting, my friend." Tu'rok says amicably as Weiss opens the nearby maintenance hatch for us.
"Into the fires of battle..." I quip back with a smile and a wave before leading Weiss and Scorpin's Squad through a maintenance hatch.
"Unto the anvil of war." Tu'rok finishes the sentence with surging confidence.
Now inside the dimly lit maintenance shaft, our two groups maintain a parallel marching pace, to the best of our abilities, at least. The corridor Tu'rok and Johnson are walking in is much straighter with less up and down than the maintenance shaft with all of its nooks and crooks.
According to Magos Hedagine's recovered schematic, the anti-air and anti-orbital cogitator chamber has two viable routes of access. One is, understandably, Tu'rok's corridor that leads directly to the chamber. The second is the maintenance shaft, which will ultimately take us to an elevated position in the objective room, hence the possibility of some parkour activity for us to get there.
As we trudge on and on, Tu'rok's side regularly comes into contact with scattered cultist interceptions. Nothing too serious in firepower, of course, until we reach near the ambush point the Magos warned us about earlier. Navigating the shaft, the telltale reverberations of an Autocannon being chambered cause my feet to stall.
"All units, halt." I alert everyone, causing Tu'rok and everyone else to maintain their positions. Tu'rok's group stops just shy of the area of the corridor where the ambush has its lockdown with an entrenched weapon.
"The ambush?" Tu'rok asks seriously from the other side of the grated fence.
"Seems like a Weapon Crew with an Autocannon. Moving to dismantling it now. Wait one." I reply.
"Understood."
I turn to Weiss, Scorpin, and her Squad which are behind me. "Weiss, with me. The rest of you, stay here and keep it mute."
"Roger that, and be careful, Ein, Weiss." Scorpin nods with a cool face.
I return the gesture before leading Weiss with me. Silently, we squeeze through a gap of rusted plumbing and a moss-covered wall. Thanks to Atsuko's Gift, hiding myself means I am at less risk of being detected, period. I don't know how that feature of her gift works exactly, but I have confidence that when I scurrying around like this, trying to counter-ambush, these cultists won't be seeing me coming.
However, I am once again surprised at how adept Weiss is in maneuvers like this one. Call her a Rookie all I want, but it doesn't change the fact that she is a born Lucifer Blacks turn undercover Cadian.
Finally, we reach where our supposed ambushers are. Hiding ourselves behind the thick network of pipes that run from floor to ceiling, with me crouching and Weiss standing over me, I stealthily peek my head out partially to ascertain the situation before tucking back in.
"Four of them." I repeat the hostile head count. "Two on the floor manning a 30 Mike-Mike. Two standing behind acting as additional crew members."
Looking up at my battle buddy, I suggest with a quirk of my lips.
"So, one side each?" I pull out my Laspistol as Weiss nods slowly.
"I take right, those that are standing." I delegate. "You take the left ones, those that are proning by the Autocannon. Ready?"
"On you." Weiss answers briefly as she holds her Lasrifle in the high-ready position.
I start the countdown.
"3..."
"2..."
"1...!"
We turn out from our hiding spot together, not fully, of course, as we make sure to present the smallest profile possible. Due to my lower stance, I aim at the standing targets while Weiss, with her taller height and field of view, goes for the two directly manning the Autocannons.
SNAPSNAP
Firing together twice per person, Weiss and I reap yet another four headless corpses that not even their mothers would cry for.
I don't think the cultists even know that they're all dead.
SNAP
With one last shot, I melt the barrel of the Autocannon in half before speaking into Vox.
"Ambush dismantled. We're clear to proceed."
"Good copy. Moving up to you now, Ein." Scorpin replies.
"Thanks for the assist, my friend." Tu'rok chimes in with gratitude.
Once the Vox goes inactive, I turn to Weiss.
"Nice shots, by the way." I give her a thumbs up, and she returns.
"You too, Ein. You got your pair faster than I did."
"Well, I am a bit of a quickdrawer myself." I reply with a wink. "Come on, let's make room for Scorpin's Squad. Don't want them all stuck in this narrow aisle because of us."
"We are so close to being done with all of this..."